Gem appraisal company accused of overvaluing diamonds resigns from industry association
The Mainichi Daily News, May 23, 2010
A leading gem appraisal company that is accused of deliberately overestimating the color qualities of diamonds has given up its membership in the national gem industry association responsible for setting diamond grading standards.
The company, called the Gemological Association of All Japan (GAAJ), submitted a request for termination of its membership, which was accepted at an emergency board of directors' meeting on Friday of the industry association, called the Association of Gemological Laboratories Japan (AGL).
The reasons given for the termination included "creation and leaking of an internal document of dubious content," in reference to guidelines for artificially bumping up the "color" ranks of diamonds in an alleged bid to increase their price.
During questioning by AGL directors, the GAAJ admitted to creating the document, which advised "correcting" color values of diamonds a half to a full grade closer to "transparent" than they should have been based on standards set in part by the AGL.
The AGL has decided to offer free re-appraisals on request for diamonds the GAAJ appraised from February 2007 to October 2008. A diamond's accompanying appraisal certificate should show a date within that range to be eligible. The AGL has requested the unique serial numbers of the relevant appraisal certificates from the GAAJ.
Link: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100522p2a00m0na005000c.html
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